Giants Still Pursuing Center Fielders, Will Play McCutchen In Right Field

If there were any questions as to where Andrew McCutchen would play with his new team in 2018, the Giants decisively answered them in a conference call with reporters today (link via Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle). Manager Bruce Bochy flatly told the media that McCutchen will be his right fielder in 2018, with Hunter Pence shifting across the outfield and playing left field for the first time in his MLB career (excluding a brief appearance there during the 2011 All-Star Game).

That, of course, leaves the Giants with a noted gap in center field, but GM Bobby Evans said today that he’s still exploring both the trade and free-agent market for center fielders. San Francisco will be hard-pressed to sign a notable free agent to play there, though, if the team is to stick to its goal of remaining beneath the luxury tax threshold of $197MM. Per Cot’s Contracts, the Giants are currently $4.8MM shy of that barrier, even when including the cash the team picked up from the Pirates and Rays as part of the McCutchen and Evan Longoria acquisitions.

Notably, Schulman adds that ownership has not mandated that the Giants stay under the luxury threshold, so it remains conceivable that the team could simply change course if it feels that to be the best path back to contention an increasingly competitive NL West division.

Obviously, there’s no real way to fit the free-agent market’s top center fielder, Lorenzo Cain, onto the Giants’ books without further trades to subtract payroll. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports (via Twitter) that the Giants’ non-Cain wishlist is topped by Jarrod Dyson. He’s followed by Jon Jay and Cameron Maybin, in that order, according to Crasnick. While no deal is close, Crasnick adds that the Giants have reached out to Dyson’s camp to express interest, but the fleet-footed free agent, who is still talking with multiple teams.

Dyson, 33, is one of the game’s fastest players, with an average sprint speed of 28.8 ft/sec, per Statcast. Those wheels have led to consistently excellent defensive marks across all three outfield spots, though the majority of Dyson’s career has been spent in center. At the plate, he’s a career .258/.325/.352 hitter — including a .264/.331/.367 slash across the past two seasons. Dyson has also averaged 31 stolen bases per season since beginning to accumulate regular semi-regular playing time with the Royals back in 2012.

As is the case with almost any player, Dyson brings some noted shortcomings to the table. He’s never hit more than five home runs in a season, and moving to the cavernous AT&T Park at age 33 wouldn’t figure to help him in that regard. He’s also looked more or less inept against left-handed pitching in his career, hitting just .215/.293/.259 against same-handed opponents. Neither the Royals nor the Mariners saw fit to give Dyson much time against lefties, as he’s accumulated just 341 career plate appearances against them.

Jay and Maybin, who’ll turn 33 and 31, respectively, this spring, would bring different skills to San Francisco. Neither can match Dyson’s defensive excellence, but Jay has virtually no platoon split to speak of and has been a consistent source of solid batting averages and OBP marks in his career (.288/.355/.383). Maybin is the youngest of the bunch and also has the most power and best walk rate of the bunch. But, he’s been injury-prone and didn’t enjoy an especially strong 2017 season at the plate (.228/.318/.365). The free-agent market also features cost-effective veterans like Peter Bourjos and old friend Rajai Davis, among other unsigned center field candidates (MLBTR Free Agent Tracker link).

The trade market could present its fair share of options as the Giants seek center fielders. San Francisco has been linked to Reds center fielder Billy Hamilton (another defensive star) on and off throughout the offseason, though Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported just today that talks between the two sides are “dormant.” Buchanan adds that one source feels it’s likely that Hamilton will remain with the Reds for the 2018 campaign.

Meanwhile Brewers speedster Keon Broxton has also been linked to San Francisco at times this winter, though there’s been little such talk as of late. Yankees fans will assuredly attempt to conjure up ways in which New York could jettison Jacoby Ellsbury’s contract in a trade with the Giants, though San Francisco’s proximity to the luxury tax and Ellsbury’s decline in recent years make that quite unlikely.

San Francisco also has some internal options, led by prospect Steven Duggar, who impressed the organization with a .262/.365/.445 slash across multiple minor league levels this past season. Duggar, though, has only played 13 games in Double-A, so while Evans said he expects the 24-year-old to be in the mix for the job in Spring Training, it may be asking a lot to expect the 2015 sixth-rounder to reach the Majors early in the season. In that sense, a short-term addition in center field could serve as a stopgap for Duggar, although there’s room for a longer-term adition as well, with both Pence and McCutchen slated to hit free agency next winter.

Looking elsewhere on the roster, the addition of McCutchen and the continued pursuit of a center fielder muddies the long-term picture for outfielders Jarrett Parker, Mac Williamson and Austin Slater, each of whom has seen time on the Giants’ big league roster in recent years. Parker is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to make the 2018 roster out of Spring Training or else be exposed to waivers. Williamson has an option remaining, while Slater has all three option years left after sticking in the Majors following a June promotion.

Why not just sign Angel Pagan? He had a good year offensively in 2016, I’m surprised no team signed him in 2017. He looked good for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. He would be good even as a 4th outfielder.

The Pirates did extensive research when deciding where to move Cutch in order to move Marte to CF and determined he was better suited for RF. Something about him being better at breaking on balls in one direction vs. the other.

SF will also have to figure out who their 4th out fielder is. Gorky’s showed last year that while he can play all three outfield positions, having him in the lineup really affected the teams offensive production. Last year, SF didn’t have one starting player in the outfield who would have been good enough to be The Dodgers 4TH outfielder!!!

It pains me to say that, because I love Hunter Pence and hope to see him bounce back this year.

It’s not an approach, nor if you’ve seen him throw is that an approach. Pence has a physical condition, Scheuermann’s Disease, which prevents him from lifting his arms beyond a certain point. It’s actually pretty impressive that he’s been able to play MLB at all. I’d go with “inspiring” rather than entertaining.

I’ve watched Pence his whole career as a Giant. His hamstring has given him so many troubles, and the speed and intensity he plays at, it’s hard to imagine him staying on the field for 140 games this year. It’s nice of you to burden us here with your exasperation regarding Ellsbury, but we don’t give two Sh@ts about yankee dead weight. This just in, Yankees and Red Sox amount to absolutely zero when it comes to Giant’s baseball!

Last year Pence was doing something really strange (for him) at the plate. He didn’t seem to pick up a breaking ball (slider or slurve) that broke off the plate away from him. He seemed to get two strikes and then be swinging at the pitch that broke off the plate every single time with his front shoulder flying open early.

If Pence can solve that problem by staying on that outside breaking pitch, looking to drive it the other way, he will be a tougher out and I think we’ll see a huge impact on his numbers.

To think that Pence can be productive again is pretty optimistic and contrary to almost all comparable players of his age, i.e. chronically hurt and in their mid 30s. Unlikely.
Also, can we all just agree that Parker, Williamson, and Gorkys Hernandez have each had extended auditions and not impressed? none of those guys are major leaguers. sorry Giants, you’re looking at another losing season

Between Parker, Williamson, Slater, and even Duggar, they shouldn’t have trouble with a 4th outfielder. Gorkys is fine as a late game defensive sub. The problem last season was him needing to start because of injuries to Span and Slater with no one else capable of playing CF.

Except every team has injuries. If Cutch and Pence go down the Outfield looks terrible or at best unproven offensively. SF had this issue last year. They went into the season with two outfielders and hopes they could figure out the rest. Even Sabean came out and said he knew in spring training SF were in trouble in the outfield.

The point was they probably will not need to count on Gorkys to start in CF to cover for injured players. If they follow through on their plan to add a CF, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t, they will have at least 3 guys capable of playing CF other than Gorkys.

I wonder if Inciarte is available. Acuna can play center, still have Markakis. The giants and marlins discussed prospects at length during the Stanton talks, maybe the Braves flip some for Yelich. A lot of dots to connect but it would be interesting.

Giants, I’m sure, would love to have him or Jake Marisnick, Kevin Kiermaier, Broxton, etc., but as evidenced by their never-ending trade talks for Billy Hamilton, they just don’t have much of value to offer teams in return. Giants won’t have much choice but to go the free agent route, and the most likely outcome is a short term deal with Jay, Maybin, Dyson, or Carlos Gomez – whichever one doesn’t have a seat when the music stops about a month from now.

Not true. Just because they don’t have a lot of prospect depth doesn’t mean they have no one of value. The Reds wanted Heliot Ramos which is a huge overpay for Hamilton. The Giants were able to acquire McCutchen without giving up one of their top 3 prospects. Besides Ramos other teams would surely be interested in Shaw, and perhaps to a lesser extent Beede, but even he would be of interest to other teams Even their 6-10 prospects would draw interest.

Yes Kevin Pillar, easy. If the Giants were willing to trade Ranos, or some combination of Shaw, Beede, Suarez, Garcia, or Duggar, they could have Pillar. The reason they won’t is the Giants aren’t willing to give up that much

I agree. Shark is underrated and his SO and Walk numbers are off the charts insane. A lot of his issues came because he is a fly ball pitcher and the Giants outfield defense was horrific last year. His FIP was about 1 full point below his actual ERA at 3.5.

Shark is excellent when it comes to those indicator stats, and always has been. Unfortunately, he always under performs them. Always. And every team comes up with a reason why. It’s simple really. He’s just not a good pitcher. He’s just an innings eater.

fWAR values low walk rates and Innings eaters over performance. Samardzija is not a top 15 starter in baseball. Its absolutely comical how you think he is valuable and has a bargin. No he does not have a bargin deal. When guys put the ball in play off him bad things happen. He is very durable but not going to produce the results of a top SP

Well maybe “stinks” was a bit exaggerated, But he just isn’t good enough for any team to make a 3 year commitment to. And he probably isn’t going to get any better. Moving him might have been in the realm of possiblity had there been a dearth of guys who could play CF. There isn’t, and any team looking for one has better options. So he was correct that no one wants him.

I don’t know if they can afford it, but they ought to platoon Maybin (R) and Revere (L). Both are relatively cheap free agents with leadoff experience. They both can pinch-run and steal bases. Revere batted almost .300 last year v. RHP and he can’t cost more than 1 mill?

It’s not over anyone’s head, it’s simply not clever or funny. It was a swing and a miss. The giants won with underrated players everyone else wrote off and the most homegrown players of any championship team. His comment isn’t even relevant if it’s sarcasm.

Dyson is the best choice for the Giants, as he is better defensively than the other choices. But if it is a matter of staying under the CBT Threshold, the others might be better, just wait until spring training and get one of them on the cheap.

How is a team that over the last few years has fielded a team with the most homegrown players than any other team, which continues to be their core, buying anything? In the last couple of years, the Giants payroll was about $100M less than the Dodgers who had fewer homegrown players, but in your eyes it’s the Giants buying a championship? What the Giants have done and paid FAs pales in comparison to what the Yankees have done over the decades. Your post is not only lacking anything viable to support your assertion, but is absurd beyond sense and;logic.

Almost half their payroll right now is from free agents. Not counting the 2 salary dumps they just traded for. They will be buying for the next few years with how weak their farm system is. They should be rebuilding but instead grasping at straws to make the playoffs. They still have no bullpen. Its going to be hard for them to compete with so many question marks.

All large market teams are going to have a majority of their payroll going to FAs. That’s the nature of FAs, and players under team control. One group is overpaid the other underpaid.. Look at the Red Sox. Their top 3 in salary and their top 6 of 7 were FAs, Look at the Yankees. Their top 5, and 8 of their top 10 were FAs. The Giants are no different.

You disagreeing with their approach, thinking they should be rebuilding when they’re trying to win now is irrelevant to your first argument that they’re buying a championship. I bet anything you went looking at how much of their payroll is allocated to FAs without looking at other teams. Because if you had you’d see your argument rings hollow.

I’m still stunned at the absurdity of your claim when the Giants historically have not spent to the extent that either the Yankees or Dodgers have.

Stuck in last season’s news cycle? Melancon had forearm surgery months ago to correct the issue that bothered him during the 2017 season. He was playing catch pain free over a month ago, and is projected to be ready well ahead of ST. So, no, the Giants closer is not “on the shelf”.

The Giants are trying to follow the 2012-2014 Phillies formula but do it even riskier. When players in their 30’s have a bad season they bounce back maybe 10-20% of the time. They often decline often rapidly, going from a 5 WAR player to 1 WAR to replacement level. Roy Halladay went from 8.9 to 0.9 to -1.0.

Because a player in his 30’s is a risk to fall of a cliff at any time you don’t want to have too many. You’re betting a bad hand. The Phillies were loaded with them but they, like the Giants now, didn’t want to do a rebuild. So they added more players in their 30’s like A. J. Burnett and Marlon Byrd. They found out that you can’t make a bad team of declining players good by adding more aging players.

What the Phillies didn’t do was trade any of their top 20 prospects for aging vets. Like the Giants they didn’t have that many good prospects but at least they held on to those they did have. Their early sell offs (Pence, Victorino, Blanton) didn’t produce good minor leaguers and they’ve had to suffer through bad season after bad season even when they had a high payroll.

The Giants are in for a long decline and won’t turn it around until they actually start producing players the way the Phillies finally are now.

I was going to give a pithy come back but that seemed rather juvenile. No, I don’t have anything saved anywhere but I am able to remember things. I have given a similar critique of the Giants before and will again. Feel free to be annoyed.

And your takeaway from all of this is anal discomfort? What the hell is wrong with you?
It’s not out of the question that nuclear winter is coming for the Giants. The farm system is, to be charitable, a dumpster fire. And they have Jarrett Parker and Kelby Fu&#ing Tomlinson on their 40-man roster!

Actually the prospects they’ve acquired haven’t produced that much. Crawford, Hernandez, Hoskins, Altherr, Franco, Knapp, and Rupp were key last year and some figure to be that going forward. The players they got in recent trades (Williams, Alfaro) produced far less. The most significant position player from outside the organization was Herrera, acquired via Rule 5.

Most of the starting pitchers they used last year were acquired in recent trades but none of them have established themselves. The one established starter, Aaron Nola and Hector Neris were their two best pitchers. Both of them are homegrown.

Key homegrown players had 16.5 FWAR, while players in recent trades had only 5.2. All of the Phillies top prospects in the minors (Kingery, Sanchez, Moniak, Kilome) are homegrown.

The Phillies were lauded for acquiring a lot of prospects but right now the haul doesn’t look like it’ll be that significant going forward.

You talk about “players in their 30s” and that covers a huge range. In baseball early 30s are still in the average players prime, while being productive into the late 30s is rare, even though it does happen. The two aren’t comparable and should not be lumped together under one enormous generalization.

Halladay didn’t “decline”. Halladay broke down. He had shoulder surgery and then it turned out he had been pitching with a bad back that would have required surgery for him to continue his career – assuming the surgery was successful, which was no guarantee. He elected to retire.

that was when they had a farm team. Now they must spend to keep competitive. That is why many of us are saying buying a championship. Without out spending other teams they would be in a rebuild. Now they are clinging onto a old team and must spend to stay competitive. Their payroll right now is at $197 million next year at $138 million with only 8 players. Their payroll could end up the highest of all teams this year.

Isn’t that what almost every contender does? If your team is close you put more in to have a better chance. In 2010 their payroll wasn’t at 100 million and nobody (myself included) thought they would even be in the world series. As they found their window they began to spend more. Examples now are Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Nationals, Astros (in the next year or two with extensions). You wanna say A’s or royals (or other small market) ok ill agree but even they’ll splurge what they can for as long as they can. They believe they have a final shot (though obviously people don’t agree) why not?

Please Cash, reach a deal to send Ellsbury over without giving up top prospects. McCutchen was a 2.5 WAR player last year. Ellsbury a 1.7 WAR. Im sure theyd be interested if you eat enough of his contract. Also, please dont waive your NTC, Ellsbury.

The Giants aren’t interested. A couple things you left out in your Cutch/Ellsbury comparison is that Cutch will be 31, and has only a one year commitment, while Ellsbury will be 34, and comes with a 3 year commitment through his age 36 season.

I like the idea someone above made: With Kyle Tucker and Derek Fisher needing playing time, Jake Marisnick is likely the odd man out in HOU. Jake is one of the better defenders in MLB and would be perfect in SFG.

I wonder why no one has suggested giving Austin Slater a shot in Center. He played there at Stanford. He has the speed and arm for it. He showed he could hit before he got hurt. It seems they should at least try him there. No one from the Giants brass has suggested it though.

I have no doubt the Giants will be giving Slater a long look in ST. It’s just they don’t want to gamble on a young player like that without a veteran option. They probably don’t want a repeat of last season when it was Parker and Williamson competing for the LF job. Eventually I think they see Duggar in CF at some time, but 2018 is doubtful.

He is a crazy thought for “all” so called Pirates fans…. Sell out every game and go with signs stating how displeased you are about the McCutchen trade. Maybe just maybe the team will be playing for a wild card spot and trade back for him. Other wise you lose a very good team that has a better future then the 90’s team after their free fall. Just a crazy thought.